Sunday, January 27, 2013

Exploring some pieces of Jakarta

Rain, flood, bad traffic,... are the trending topics for Jakartans for the last seven days.
That's the reality that we're facing now.
It'll continue for probably couple of weeks more.
To be honest, almost every morning and afternoon during the weekdays my heart beat is faster than usual, when I think about my children and husband, who are out there somewhere not at home.

So, what is your plan during this season? Probably staying at home is the best choice for Jakartans.
...sooner or later, won't you get bored? Go to the mall?...Travelling?
Serious?

I do like travelling, so do my family. But we have to deal with all of our family members' schedule. We can't go at anytime we want. For me, travelling is not only a consumption for adults. Bringing along my children to enjoy and see new places, introducing them with new different cultures, different traditions are big happiness for us. I believe my children will gain lots of new experiences from the adventures.

Deal with the schedule, deal with the season, deal with the budget...
Exploring the city is the best choice for now.
There were some places that we chose to be explored about 2 months ago, during a long weekend. For sure, all of them are kids friendly places.
Maybe this can inspire you to bring your children to explore your city.
I like to name this trip,"Blast from the Past".

Museum of Memorial Stone Park, Central Jakarta
Museum Taman Prasasti.

Honestly, at the beginning I felt a bit doubt to upload this kind of museum trip into this blog. Why?
Because I started this blog as a food blog, that always related with something good for looking and tasting, and now... I put pictures of cemetery. oooh...
Ok, I'm trying to choose the nice angles and far from any spooky images.

"Taman Prasasti Museum or Museum of Memorial Stone Park is a museum located in Jakarta, Indonesia. The museum was formerly a cemetery, built by the Dutch colonial government in 1795 as a final resting place for noble Dutchmen. Several important person that was buried in the cemetery area are Olivie Mariamne Raffles - the first wife of British governor general Thomas Stamford Raffles - and Indonesian youth activist Soe Hok Gie".wikipedia

Located in Jl. Tanah Abang, Central of Jakarta, this open air museum is not hard to be found. It was quiet, no visitors at that time. ...and actually it was under renovation. The project is expected to create an arrangement of old and new memorials, a redesigned park and a drainage system to prevent flooding.

That's a very good news; the government is willing to spare a budget to preserve and renovate the relics of the past. Sadly to see some of the tombs are not in good condition, not well maintained and abandoned.

Luckily, the museum was open for public during the renovation. So that morning we could walk around the 'park', a place that can't be found easily in this metropolitan city.
Beautiful tombstones, sculptures, statues, with the unique shapes are very interesting for us. Our children liked to read the names and poems that were written on the tombs, then I do like to see their eyes open bigger when they realized the years written were so long ago.
On some of the tombs were written the person's cause of the death.

So if you are interested to visit this place, I suggest you to visit it after the renovation done. The information I got that it should be finishing on December but I think it takes about 2-3 more months. It'll become an interesting and nice place to visit.
To learn more about the history of this museum, you can check this link.

Sion 'Portuguese' Church, North Jakarta

It's not hard to find this old church. Located on Jl. Pangeran Jayakarta, just a walking distance from the famous Jakarta City Train Station a.k.a Stasiun Jakarta Kota/Beos.
It was built in 1693 and completed two years later. This is the oldest remaining church in Jakarta. So...it's clear now, what the reason was we visited this church; to see one of the heritage buildings in this city.

Formerly known as De Nieuwe Potugeesche ("The New Portuguese Church"); referring to its location and also known as Belkita, then later the church name changed into Portuguese Church. It was closed for two years during Japanese occupation in Indonesia, and later on, during the government transition, the ownership of the church was transfered by the Dutch government to the Protestant Churches of Western Indonesia body (GPIB - Gereja Protestan Indonesia Bagian Barat).
Now, we recognize this church as GPIB Jemaat Sion.

It's very interesting to know that this church was built above the foundation of 1000 logs and measures 24x32 meters. The church has a plain facade, ward-like appearance and domed windows.

We walked and explored interior of the church... it's amazing to see that everything is in the good condition, very well-maintained; the heavy wooden chairs, copper chandeliers, baroque-style ebony pulpit, and also the original pipe organ.
Interesting!

On the outside of the church, there are few tombs remain.
That's part that I really didn't want to glance.Tanjung Priok Station, North Jakarta

In the middle of the hustle bustle traffic around Tanjung Priok Bus Terminal, a white massive art deco-style facade welcoming our visit to this old train station.
Looking from the building entrance size, I estimated that this station wasn't too big.

Entering the building, we passed the high ceiling lobby with thick brick walls, two rows of ticket counters on the left and right side of the lobby. A magnificent interior.

It was not many people at that time. Too quiet for a train station.
And... we're surprised when entering the main station...it is big, huge station with EIGHT platforms, which is as large as the main station, Jakarta City Station (Stasiun Jakarta Kota/Beos). I didn't imagine it's that big!

The station was built in 1914 to connect Tanjung Priuk Harbor with Batavia (later on became Jakarta) on the South. In its construction not less than 1,700 workers were employed and about 130 were from Europe.
It was built on a 46,930 m2 site and the glorious and luxurious building was 3,768 m2. At that time it was not only used as a station but it also provided lodging for passengers who wanted to wait for ship arrival to continue their journey. The rooms were on the left wing of the building especially built for the Dutch and European passengers. The rooms were supplemented with underground rooms functioned as logistic shed.
Awesome!

This station was ceased operating for about 10 years, started at 1999, because state train company decided to concentrate its services in other areas with higher passenger number,...the result...this station was on a bad condition.

Luckily, renovation was done not only for the public transportation, but also to preserve the station as a heritage building. The renovation restored the authenticity of the building, including the train dispatcher, the signal house and the underground rooms.
In 2009, this station opened again as a public passengers station.

Note: please check the picture here to see the whole original building.

For the ending of this long story, here a little tips to bring your children exploring your city:
*Make an effective plan; where to go, how long the trip is scheduled, and how to get there. Make sure it'll be comfortable and safe for everyone.
*I let my children to carry small digital camera, and let them taking pictures, rather than waiting for us busy with our cameras.
*Don't let the children get bored and hungry. Entertain them (talking to them, tell the story about the place that they'll visit), bring enough snacks and water. On our last trip, I brought a jar of homemade gingerbread cookies.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Spiced Fruit Cakelets

Jakarta is unusual pretty cold!
It rains almost everyday.
I'm not kind of person who likes to complain about weather.
I always try to enjoy whatever the weather is...
But unfortunately for many times I have to cancel my plan to exercise; walking or jogging. Really disappointing, when you're so ready with complete attire and suddenly we have to cancel it.
...so let me spend more time for blogging then.

Last weekend, I had a chance to visit Situ Lembang lake, near Bandung in West Java. It's about 3 hours journey from our home in South Jakarta. I didn't know this place before, not even have heard about it. Until last week, my husband asked me to accompany him for an event in that area. After listening to his promotion about this area; the lake, the beautiful pine forest, the cold weather (bonus : clean air), and the activity (hiking! I love this one)... I'm so happy to accompany him.

Arriving to this 'not open for public' area, my body was a bit shock with the weather.
Fog, rain, and wind were welcoming us. It was very-very cold, especially when the wind was blowing hardly.
Located 1.567m ASL, between two famous mountain, Mount Tangkuban Parahu and Mount Burangrang, this 'military area' is in naturally well maintained.

Well, I hope from the pictures above you can feel and imagine the place that I visited last weekend.
More picture you can see here.

Now, continuing my story about food, this time I'll share about a little fruit cake that I baked last month.
The idea for choosing the recipe was still the same with those previous recipes; fruits and spices on the ingredient list.

And ...the warm spices; cinnamon and nutmeg, that's combined with raisins, dry cranberries, cashew and touched with the strong aroma of Myers's rum, really made our afternoon so beautiful and full of joy.
I took the pictures while the little hands couldn't wait to grab the cakes.

My daughter and I tried hard to remember about the other dessert that we tried sometime in the past that has similar flavor with this cakelets. Unfortunately, until the little cakes were finished, I had no clue about it.

Baking this little cake make me believe that even the easy and simple recipe can produce homemade delicious food for family. This pretty little cakes blow the festive aroma hardly in our home.

Method :
1. Combine flour, spices, baking soda and salt in a bowl and mix. Set aside.
2. Place butter and sugar in another bowl and cream until light and fluffy.
3. Mix egg, rum, milk, vanilla and dark syrup until smooth.
4. Add flour mixture and combine well, then add the mixed fruit, lemon and almonds.
5. Spoon teaspoonful of cake mixture and place in mini muffin pan. Bake for 10 minutes at 175 C.
6. Dust over with icing sugar and serve.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Parmesan Oatcake

About 10 years ago, when I owed a food processor* for the first time, I had never imagined to make cookie dough using this machine. Preparing dough for donuts or bread and traditional Indonesian fishcake 'Pempek' were the main reason I decided to own this multipurpose kitchen appliance.* Brand: Moulinex. French made. Bought in a small town called Kemaman, in Terengganu, Malaysia.

And last year, I was amazed with the sophistication of this machine after making the Gingerbread Cookie dough. Just need to 'dump' all ingredients into the food processor, press the ON button...and just within a couple of minutes... the dough is ready. It is really a big wow for me... as it made my job really easy.

After that good experience with the food processor, this machine has been treated in a slavery in my kitchen, including preparing Stolen dough, and some other doughs.

Last month, while looking for 'savory biscuit' recipe after a couple of 'sweet' days baking... I hooked up on a page of Donna Hay 'old' magazine. I checked the ingredients list, read carefully the method *hey...it use food processor*, ...interesting.
I decided not to skip this cookie recipe.

It was a rainy afternoon when I started preparing this cookies on the 4th day of my Christmas Baking. Unbelievable, everything ran so easy and fast. The dough was so friendly, easy to be formed.

Coming out from the oven with nice round shape, crunchy texture, cheesy aroma.
The taste... so good. It reminded me to kaastengels, the popular savory cookies from Holland, that usually made by using edam cheese, but this parmesan cookies are slightly crunchier, and it's healthier, as it has oatmeal inside :).

This cookie is a good choice to be served for Santa. To respect him, I served green tea to accompany the cookie. Enjoy, Santa...

Preheat the oven 160 C (325 F).
Place the oats in a food processor until finely chopped.
Add the butter and process until combined.
Add the flour, baking powder, parmesan, brown sugar, milk and salt and process until a dough forms.
Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until 6 mm (1/4 in) thick. Cut into 5 cm (2 in) rounds with a cookie cutter and place on baking trays lined with non stick baking paper. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire racks.
Serve with cheese or drinks.Makes 50.

Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Chocolate Self-saucing Puddings

Wet and windy here for the last couple of days.
The first week of new year has passed already, and the bit of the days are getting fast. Tomorrow, our children will start their first day of school in Term 3, and activities will be back to the routine. Hopefully everything run smooth as I have to do lots of things on my 'have to do' list... including posting some recipes that I tried last month.

This amazing chocolate pudding was my third-day of the '12-days of Christmas Baking' project. When I said amazing, I mean it. It amazed me in some aspects.

This dish actually was not on my list to try. On that day, all of sudden I wanted to bake something in small bowls or ramekins. I had no book-marked recipe about any kind of dessert that is baked in bowls. I began to open randomly some of my 'old' magazines and just in the second or third magazine I was stuck on the title of "make your nan's pudding". No story, no other explanation, ...only simple recipe that not even separates the list of ingredients and the method.
I read it carefully, and...PING!... I decided to try it for my personal project.

It was amazing.
The method was totally new for me.
Honestly, I do love to learn and to try many different types of cooking or baking methods, from any simple methods to most complicated ones. The creator of this pudding used a super simple method that amazingly produces delicious dessert.

It's as simple as this: First, mix same ingredients (dry and wet ingredients) became batter and spoon into the prepared bowls. Second, sprinkle some dry ingredients on the top of each bowl. Third, pour boiling water on it. ...Then after all, let the oven do the rest of the job.

On the stage when I had to pour boiling water, I did believe this was gonna work. When it came out from the oven... oh, I felt so good. My pudding had good shapes, with the very chocolaty aroma.

The very good news is... the texture was perfect! It's gooey, soft and slightly sticky, and it tasted amazingly good! No more explanation, ...I'm happy to learn something new with good result.
Oh...last one, with the minimum light during the rainy season... I got some 'good enough' pictures that all were taken on my kitchen table.

Carrot Wheat Muffin

The super busy month of December has passed by very fast. Too fast.
Yesterday, early morning, we just got back from a short vacation with our big family. Spending time with our both sides of family in two different places. We spent two nights at the beautiful tea plantation in Ciwidey (West Java), one day country road journey to Cipanas (another town in West Java) and spent 3 days in Kota Bunga, Cipanas-Cianjur where we were welcoming the birth of year 2013.
Nice and a bit tiring vacation, and now...I'm so glad to be 'back in civilization'.
Another news; I have to work hard to burn some calories after the 'holiday eating season'.

Back to my laptop; editing many-many pictures when at the same time I am distracted by mountains of dirty laundry. Ooo ow!

Now, let me confess about my '12 Days of Christmas Baking' ambitious project ...
As I wrote on my previous post that I had challenged myself with an exciting Baking Project, and the result...
I didn't make it! Not 100%.

From December 10 to December 24, I only managed to bake for 9 times in between lots of activities; 3 baking short...I'll post the recipe (with the 'nice' pictures) gradually, in the next couple of days.

A bit disappointing, but on the other side I'm glad not to push myself too hard, and I enjoyed every single moment I had been through; from choosing the recipe, prepare the ingredients, baking, ...smelling the aroma of the baked good from the oven, styling, photographing the food, and watching my family members crucified them, bit by bit. Priceless.

Now... I'm ready to gather my energy to start blogging, and I will bake another 3 recipes to complete that project... as the Christmas tree still stands tall beautifully in our living room. Hhmm, our jars are totally empty after back from vacation, and I'll start to fill them all one by one.

For now, let me share the recipe of Carrot Wheat Muffin, that I baked on my 'second day' of Christmas Baking.

On that day, I still had plenty of carrots after baking the 'Carrot Cake Cookies'. I remember that I marked this recipe months ago after reading the ingredients and imagined that fresh-from-the-oven muffin will produce a 'pleasant aroma' that can enhance our Christmas mood.

Actually, it's nothing difficult about baking muffin.
At the beginning I was a bit worried to put too much batter in the paper cups, because couple of times I got overloaded muffin in my oven. So I decided only to put half batter on each paper cup and used additional 2 little loaves pan. So we got 10 medium size muffins and 2 little loaves muffins.

I got all beautiful delicious carrot muffins as I had imagined. The fragrant Christmas aroma, the beautiful texture, and delicious combinations from those ingredients.